Cultural and Physical Anthropology Cultural Anthropology

1. Cultural and Physical Anthropology Cultural Anthropology • There are three main fields of Cultural Anthropology: • Ethnology 2. Linguistic Anthropology 3. Archaeology Schools of Thought in Cultural Anthropology • Cultural Relativism, Functional Theory, Cultural Materialism Linguistic Anthropology There are three areas of linguistic anthropology: • Historical Linguistics • Structural Linguistics 3. Sociolinguistics

2. Physical Anthropology • Paleoanthropology • The Development of Bipedalism • Evolution Psychology There are three main types of psychology: • Behavioural, cognitive, humanist Sociology • Lots of theorists!

3. Unit 1: What is Social Science? Chapter 1: Cultural and Physical Anthropology

4. Cultural Anthropology

5. Culture: the total system of ideas, values, behaviours, and attitudes of a society commonly shared by most members of a society. Culture is made up of: what people do, what people make, and what people believe.

6. There are three main fields of Cultural Anthropology: Ethnology: • Ethnologists immerse themselves in a culture for months or years and take meticulous notes. Linguistic Anthropology: • Linguistic anthropologists study the history and structure of language, and the ways humans use language. Archaeology: • Archaeologists study the physical remains of a past culture through excavation and reconstruction.

7. Ethnology Ethnology is the study of the origins and cultures of different races and peoples. • They study marriage customs, kinship patterns, political and economic systems, religion, art, music, and technology. • Methods: participant observation, field work • Example: Bronislaw Malinowski and the Trobriand Islanders in the South Pacific (1915). • He lived with them, learned their language, and participated in their society. • He said that an anthropologist’s goal should be “to grasp the native’s point of view, his relation to life, to realize his vision of his world.”

8. Understanding World View • To truly understand a culture and where its people are coming from, one must understand the world view of the culture they are studying. • Anthropologists must understand their own world view to be able to recognize any assumptions they may have. • Ethnocentric: to believe that one’s own culture is superior to all others. • Example: viewing others as “backward” or “primitive” or “excessively violent”. Read together The Problems of Participant Observation p.24 – 25. p. 26 – 27 Landmark Case Study: Richard Lee and the DobeJu/’hoansi Read and answer Q 1-4

9. Schools of Thought in Cultural Anthropology Cultural Relativism, Functional Theory, Cultural Materialism

10. Cultural Relativism (Franz Boas, early 20th century) • Franz Boas promoted the idea that two cultures cannot be compared because each has its own internal rules that must be accepted. • Cultures must be understood on their own terms so as to avoid ethnocentrism.

11. Functional Theory • The idea that every belief, action, or relationship in a culture functions to meet the needs of individuals. • There is great importance in interdependence among all things within a social system to ensure its long term survival. • Example: Bronislaw Malinowski and the Trobriand Islands. • Read p. 28 explanation together.

12. Cultural Materialism (Marvin Harris, 1960s) • The theory states that materials or conditions within the environment (ex: climate, food supply, geography) influence how a culture develops, creating the ideas and ideology of a culture. • As society evolves and changes, practices and institutions may change to adapt to the needs of the individuals.

13. The Infrastructure A society’s material resources – technology, population, available land, etc.The Structure A society’s familial, political, economic, and social systemsThe Superstructure A society’s ideas, values, symbols, and religion Examples:  Hindu belief in the sacred cow. Cows are used for important agricultural work ↓ influences decisions on how the cow would best be used ↓ don’t eat cows!  Women’s roles in postwar America 1950s cultural ideal was for women to stay home ↓ inflation sends women to workforce ↓ going to work drove ideological changes of the feminist movement of the 1960s. 

14. Feminist Anthropology (p.30) • In the 1970s, feminist anthropologists re-examined anthropology to ensure female voices were heard and included in research. • They studied different cultures to see how many were dominated by men, women or both. • Ernestine Friedl, an American Feminist anthropologist, concluded that in forager societies, the amount of freedom women has was strongly tied to their contribution to the food supply. • See chart on page 30. • Today, feminist anthropologists study how cultures determine gender roles, gender myths, and how our ideas about gender are culturally constructed. • They also study how gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are constructed in various societies

15. Postmodernism (p.31) • The belief that it is impossible to have any “true” knowledge about the world. • Rejects the idea of the objective truth. • Our truths are constructed by the society and culture in which we live in. • Since the 1980s, postmodern anthropologists have been doing more research in their own cultural settings. • Example: Canadian anthropologist and director Sam Dunn on the subculture of heavy metal music.

16. Linguistic Anthropology Linguistic anthropologists study human language and how language affects and expresses culture. • There are three areas of linguistic anthropology: 1. Historical Linguistics 2. Structural Linguistics 3. Sociolinguistics

17. 1. Historical Linguistics • Compare the similarities and differences of language structures so they can understand how they are related and how people migrated in the past. • This helps in understanding cultures with no written language. • Example: Edward Sapir • Studied Aboriginal peoples and recorded their languages, often with the last living speaker. • He was able to trace the languages of Canada’s Aboriginal populations and construct an understanding of the five major culture areas of Canada. • Sapir’s work is used by Aboriginal groups themselves to create written forms of their languages as part of their cultural revival and survival.

18. 2. Structural Linguistics • Noam Chomsky • For many years there has been a battle between linguistics as to whether language acquisition is innate or learned. • Chomsky argues that language acquisition is an innate structure of the human brain. • Chomsky found that between the ages of 3-10 a child is most likely to learn a language in its entirety and grasp fluency, • After this age, it is hard and even considered impossible for the child to completely grasp a language. This is why school systems are criticized for teaching foreign languages in high school and not elementary.

19. Chomsky also found that the child does not need a trigger to begin language acquisition, it happens on its own. • The parent does not need to coax the child to speak if it is around language production, the child will work to produce its language on its own. • Several things may help the child develop faster, such as the parent producing baby talk, or being read to on a consistent basis. But all these things only have a small effect, and if they are not done, the child will still eventually learn to speak without them. • Finally, he found that it does not matter if the child is corrected on their grammar, he/she will end up speaking correctly. Also, children from around the world follow the same pattern of language acquisition.

20. 3. Sociolinguistics • Is the study of how people use language within their culture to express status and context. • Example: you speak to a teacher differently than you would your friends. • Roger Brown and Marguerite Ford did a study in 1964 that showed that how people address each other can show the relationship between them. Examples: • peers address each other by first name • title and last name shows business relationships • Student/teacher: first name of one, title and last name of the other, shows a difference in status • If addressing someone with last name and no title, this suggests a middle ground, respect but no intimacy; seen in sports contexts.

21. Physical Anthropology

22. Paleoanthropology • Name: Tuang’schild • Species: Australopithecus africanus • Date Found: 1924 • Found by: Raymond Dart • Description: fossilized skull • First proof humans come from Africa

23. Name: Dear Boy • Species: Paranthropus boisei • Date Found: 1959 • Found by: Louis and Mary Leakey • Description: fossilized skull

24. Name: Lucy • Species: Australopithecus afarensis • Date Found: 1974 • Found by: Donald Johanson • Description: a 40% complete

25. Name: Laetoli footprints • Species: • Date Found: 1976 • Mary Leakey • Found by: Mary Leakey • Description: a line of hominid fossil footprints from three individuals preserved in volcanic ash

26. Name: Turkana Boy • Species: Homo erectus • Date Found: 1984 • Found by: Richard Leakey • Description: nearly complete skeleton

27. Name: Ardi • Species: Ardipithecus ramidus • Date Found: 1994 • Found by: Tim White • Description: a fossilized skeleton that is 45% complete • In focus p.41 Q1,2

28. Name: Selam • Species: Australopithecus afarensis • Date Found: 2000 • Found by: Zeresenay Alemseged • Description: skull and skeleton remains, 3 year old girl

29. Who’s Who in Anthropology?

30. Margaret Mead: (1901 -1978)

31. Cultural anthropologist • Islands of Samoa • Compared Samoan and American culture (adolescents) • Samoan adults when grown physically – no problems with teenage conflicts • Personalities are largely influenced by society • Americans – compete = aggressive • Samoans – cooperate= passive • Book: Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) • Gender Roles: Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935) • Examined roles of men and women in different cultures • Criticism: relied too heavily on personal stories and too little on gathering of objective statistics.

32. Raymond Dart: (1893 – 1988)

33. Australian physical anthropologist • Locate and examine fossils and other remains to learn about the revolutionary development of humans. • Found a skull in South Africa in 1924. • Thought it was a transitional time between apes and humans • Called it Australopithecus (Southern Ape) • Was disputed for over twenty years. • 1947 – discovered other fossil remains that support original claim. • Research continued at the University or Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa • Institute for the Study of Man in Africa

34. The Leakey FamilyLouis Leakey (1903-1972)Mary Leakey (1913-1996)Richard Leakey (b.1944)Louise Leakey (b.1972)

35. physical anthropologists • popular view at the time was that humans had origins in Asia • Louis and Mary made numerous discoveries of fossilized human forms in Africa • Kenya and Tanzania: reconstructed human civilizations dating 100 000 years BP (before the present) • Uncovered samples of Australopithecus (1.5 – 2.5 million BP) and Homohabilis (2.2 million years BP) • Experimented with stone age tools (axes, scrapers) to see how ancestors hunted for food. • Louis felt we needed to study primates (apes, monkeys, gorillas) to have a greater understanding of our ancestors • Louis also felt that women had more accurate observational skills so he hired Jane Goodall (Britain), Dian Fossey (US), Birute Galdikas (Canada)

36. Jane Goodall (b. 1934)

37. Spent 20+ years observing and recording the lives of chimpanzees (since mid 1960s) • Watched at a distance at first, then won trust of community • Discovered that chimps used tools for some daily activities • Push sticks into holes to get ants • Chimps not strictly vegetarian, sometimes killed other chimps and ate meat! • Chimps had highly developed social structures • Alpha males win by aggression and strength • Then he alone has the right to mate with all the females and no other male can mate while he’s in charge. Eventually, a younger male will come and take over. • Goodall’s research has made connections to how our ancestors might have behaved a million years ago.

38. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTgU-cBr7xg

39. What Makes Humans Unique? Primate Social Behaviour vs. Human Social Behaviour PRIMATES Dominance Hierarchies • Alpha males in a group Grooming • Related to hierarchies • Stress release Reproduction • Estrus cycle (females are “in heat”) • No choice of when to mate • Who gets to mate and when ties into dominance and grooming hierarchies

40. Mother-Infant Relationship Harlow’s monkey experiments: • In the 1950s, an experiment was created to see to what extent the mother-infant relationship affected baby monkeys. • The baby monkeys were separated from their mothers and put in cages. In group A, on one side of the cage, there was a bottle with food, but it was surrounded by a cold, metal piece. On the other side, there was a soft plush padded blanket. These baby monkeys would choose their warm “mother” over eating, leaving most of them to starve. • In group B, they combined the warm, plush “mother” with the food, and the babies did okay. • Then, the monkeys from group A and the monkeys from group B were put into the same cage. At first, they were aggressive to each other. But as soon as they touched each other, they immediately hugged tightly. When they were to be separated, they clung to each other and attacked the scientists. Conclusions: • Must learn how to be a monkey • Long dependency compared to other mammals. Communication • Facial displays, call, touch

41. HUMANS Pair Bonding and Group Living • Humans are the only primates to have both social characteristics simultaneously Reproduction • No estrus cycle • Have choice in when to mate Mother-Infant relationship • Longest infant dependency period Communication • Speech center is located in the brain

42. A few random facts: Which primates are we closely related to? • Great Apes Which primates are our most distant relatives? • Lemurs Humans have the largest brain for our body weight compared to other mammals. The two most important determiners of differences between hominids and other primates are: • S-shaped spine • bipedalism

43. The Development of Bipedalism Bipedalism is the ability to habitually walk on two legs. Humans are the only primate with this adaptation. Structural Changes Required • S-shaped spine • Doubled arched foot • Pelvis must shorten and widen • Requires more gluteus muscles • Allows for fewer head/neck muscles and therefore a bigger brain

44. Advantages • Frees hands for carrying • Can walk long distances without tiring • Can have a continuous good view of surroundings Disadvantages • Highly dangerous and painful birthing process • Offspring very dependent and weak because skull must grow outside the womb

45. Theories of how bipedalism became adaptive • Carrying: ex. carrying young and food, over long distances • Display: seems more impressive; to scare predators • Trench Coat: males who display genitals attract mates • Energy Efficiency: less area exposed to sunlight, therefore can stay cooler • Scavenging: carry food and tools away from exposed areas • Adaptability: gives more flexibility of movement and the means to adapt more quickly to changing situations

46. Search for the Ultimate Survivor • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGO50w58wIY&list=PLMMGAtL9q010onGFwvvB8LXRJ07ecdMUz